the Help-Hurt tool

Tutorial for patients

Discussions with your medical specialist can oftentimes be overwhelming and difficult to grasp. With the Help-Hurt tool, the information offered can be easier to process, and you can make a more informed decision.

Please know that the tool is an aid -and not a replacement- for a dedicated discussion with your provider.

Understanding how doctors think...

Any medical treatment will offer benefits and harms. Taking an aspirin for migraine has roughly a one in five chance of relieving the pain (Lampl et al. 2011), however when taken frequently; one in every 500 patients could have an important adverse effect like "internal bleeding" (Sanmuganathan et. al. 2001).How we weigh the pros and cons of treatments has to due with the specifics of any medical case, but also has to do with how the values of the patient and the influence the provider asserts.

Increasing patient participation in medical decision making is a priority. However, it is difficult for patients to grasp all the nuances that build the process of choosing an appropriate therapy.

With the Help-Hurt tool the intention is to make the medical specialist's reasoning more visible to the patient, encouraging the patient to further participate in his therapeutic decision making.